Automatic identification is the broad term applying to a host of technologies that are used to help machines identify objects. Automatic identification is often coupled with automatic data capture. Therefore, companies wanting to identify items are able to capture information about the items, to store the captured information in a computer, and to selectively retrieve the information from the computer for a variety of useful purposes, all with minimal human labor.
One type of automatic identification technology is radio-frequency identification (RFID). RFID is a term that describes technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify objects. There are several conventional methods of identifying objects using RFID, the most common of which is to store a serial number that identifies a product (and other information, if desired) on a microchip that is attached to an antenna. The chip and the antenna together define an RFID transceiver. The antenna enables a remote reader (e.g., an RFID reader) that has a transceiver to communicate with the chip, and enables the chip to transmit identification information back to the reader when actuated to do so (e.g., interrogated) by the reader. The RFID reader converts the radio waves returned from the RFID tag into a form that can then be utilized by a computer.